The Akwa Savings and Loans Limited, owned by the Akwa Ibom Government, said it had disengaged about 40 employees.
The bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ebong Bassey, disclosed this at an interactive session with newsmen in Uyo on Monday.
“We have disengaged 40 of our staff and very soon more than 50 others will also be disengaged. This is in a move to aggressively restructure the bank and reposition it for global competitiveness,” he said.
Bassey said that the move would also strengthen the capital base of the bank.
He also said that some branches of the bank would be shut to enhance productivity and quality control.
According to him, some of the employees of the bank who have been indicted by a special panel on various cases of fraudulent practices, are being interrogated by the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
He, however, said that the previous management of the bank had deviated from the core mandate and vision of the founding fathers of the struggling bank.
Bassey blamed the previous management for running the bank as a charitable organisation, adding that his management team inherited N1.8 billion debt and within five months of his assumption of office, recovered N1.4 million
“ We are doing everything within our power to ensure that we recover all the money,” Bassey said.
The managing director promised to publish names of the bank’s debtors as soon as the external auditors submitted their report in March.
He said that many debtors had written and submitted post-dated cheques to the bank to prevent their names from being published.
The managing director assured esteemed customers that the new management was resolute to reposition the bank to meet modern banking standards.
Council Calls For  More Deep Seaports
The Chairman, Nigerian Ports Consultative Council (NPCC), Chief Kunle Folarin, has said that more deep seaports with natural deep draught are critical to the development of the Nigerian maritime industry.
Folarin said this in a paper titled: “Overview of the Nigerian Maritime Sector’’, presented at a two-day retreat organised by the House Committee on Ports, Harbour and Waterways, the Federal Ministry of Transportation and its agencies.
According to him, with the continued increase in the volume of global trade, most shipping lines and main line operators seek to achieve economies of scale.
“This is why the deployment of large capacity deep sea and mother vessels to serve their trunk trade routes,’’ he said.
“Presently, Panama vessels can load up to between 8,000 to 15,000 TEUS (containers) with draught of between 13 to 15.5 metres.
“Consequently, this has precipitated the demand for deep seaports to accommodate these vessels for the purpose of transhipment,’’ The Tide source quotes Folarin as saying.
He suggested that a deep seaport should be strategically located in an area where security and safety would not be compromised.
Folarin said major ports with the right depth and facilities were being favoured as transhipment hub due to the enormous amount of money generated from the plethora of cargo handled.
He said, “There is a compelling need for strong and durable strategic alliances between the Federal Ministry of Transportation and key Federal Government Ministries, some of whose functions inter-phase with those of the ministry.’’
Folarin said that there were critical issues in the maritime domain like: piracy and armed robbery; effects of macro-economic policies; free trade zones restrictions; and excessive port charges.
“Other issues are: multiple intervention in clearing processes; difficulties in export documentation and contracts; prohibition of imported items; and parallel tariffs and duplication of charges,” Folarin said.
Folarin mentioned commercial industrial and oil and gas cargo operations; limitations and barriers in claims administration; and unfavourable commercial trade terms option.
He said other issues included: foreign exchange inaccessibility by shippers; ratification and domestication of international conventions and compliance  with World Trade Organisation (WTO) and EU protocols.